1 Peter 4:10-11 Are you stingy?

Transcription

1 1 Peter 4:10-11 Are you stingy? Whenever I think about stewardship in the church, I always have to laugh recalling an example of a pastor I once knew while in Seminary. He was trying to get his congregation to commit to giving money on a regular basis for the church s capital building campaign. I just happened to be visiting his church the Sunday that he decided to make a point about stewardship. Before preaching, he called the ushers to come forward for the offering. The choir sang a beautiful song entitled, Give, and it will come back to you. Thanks to God was given for the offering, and then, the pastor turned toward the congregation and he made this announcement. Friends, the offering we have just received will be used to meet the operating budget, and ministry needs of this church. However, this morning we are going to take a leap of faith, and trust in God. I want all the men in the congregation to stand up. (We all stood up.) Then he said, Now, I want you to take your big, bony hand, and hold it up high in the air. (We all raised our hand up high.) Now, he said, I want you to reach back behind you, and put your hand deep into your back pocket, and pull out your wallet. Then he said, Now, hold out your wallet where all your friends here today can see what you are about to do. I want you to look into your wallet, and don t you dare pull out less than a twenty dollar bill and I know you ve got some money left, because you didn t give it all in the first offering! Now some of you men here, I know you ve got to borrow twenty dollars from your wife, so go ahead and do that. And then, reaching for his own wallet, and not finding it, he said out loud, Son, tell your mama to send the checkbook up here to daddy. After writing his own check, he said, Friends, in all seriousness, God has blessed our church by helping it to grow in its programs, and its membership. God has blessed us so that we can 1

2 be a blessing to others, especially others in our community, who need to see Christ reaching out in this world. Our new building will make it possible for us to bless so many others, but we will not see our dreams become realities if we do not step out in faith, and give to God what is rightfully his. I challenge each of you to hear the words of the prophet Malachi speaking for God, when he said, You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do, I will open the windows of heaven for you. And, I will pour out a blessing so great you won t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! Then the pastor again challenged the congregation to give above and beyond their usual offering, making their gift a true leap of faith, trusting that the Lord would bless them in abundance for it. I was challenged that day to see beyond my own financial situation and to trust that if I was faithful in my offering to God, I could also trust in Him to meet all of my needs. I want to take the opportunity today to increase our awareness of just what stewardship is. And I know that you are probably sitting out there this morning saying, Oh no, the preacher gonna tell us we need to put more money in the offering plate. Well, that s only part of it. In our pledge of membership to the United Methodist Church, we promise to be faithful stewards of our church by supporting it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This involves more that just giving financially. It also means that we are faithful in offering our time and talent in service to God as well. But let s change gears for just a moment and talk about Thanksgiving. True thanksgiving begins with being genuinely thankful to God The Giver of every gift. And everything that we are, and possess, are gifts from God! Being thankful is a fine 2

3 beginning but friends, that is only the beginning. What we do with, and how we use what God has blessed us with, is what shows our genuine gratitude, and thanksgiving. It also shows whether or not we re stingy. It is inescapable genuine thankfulness and good stewardship are inseparably related. You cannot lift up your heart in thanksgiving to God, and not use what God has given you in his service, and for his glory. For what a hollow ring it must sound like in the ears of God when we express our thanksgiving to him, and then proceed to hoard, store up, or self-indulge his gifts and blessings. God blesses and showers us with an abundance of good gifts from above, not just to make us thankful, but to make us useful. What we express to God about what he has given to us is called Thanksgiving. What we do with all of his gifts to us is called Stewardship. Now, let me ask you a question: What do you hold fast to your heart? What is most precious to you? It is a very unfortunate thing that any church should have to seek financial support for its work and ministries. Everyone knows that if the church is to continue, the buildings must be kept in good repair, salaries must be paid, materials purchased, missions supported, and so on. The ideal situation would be something like this: Every Christian, being a good steward of what God has given to him or her, would joyfully, and without any urging, make a regular weekly, monthly or annual contribution to the work and ministry of the Church at home and abroad. But two things from this statement stare us in the face. (1) the meaning of the name Christian, and (2) the meaning of the term good steward. If a person is not a Christian in the true sense of that word, no amount of urging him or her to support the church and its ministries will produce much in the way of interest 3

4 and concern in the Church s program for proclaiming the Gospel the good news about Jesus! If a person is not a true steward of God s gifts, no amount of clever publicity or salesmanship or cartwheels turned down the center aisle of the church by the preacher, will produce much in the way of financial support for the church, beyond a mere token offering. How can I say this and know it to be real? Well folks, I was one of those church members who gave a token offering every Sunday, just to make myself feel better. It certainly wasn t because I wanted to be a good steward of the gifts God had given me. And it certainly wasn t because I was concerned about spreading the good news about what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. It wasn t until I truly trusted in Christ, and received the Holy Spirit of God living in and through me, that I knew I must step out in faith, and tithe on my income. My heart needed to be changed, and it was only the work of the Holy Spirit in my life that helped me to be convinced that I needed to give to God first, and then pay the bills. That was a real leap of faith for me and my family. But Jesus said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I had to ask myself a hard question about my faith, Which treasure, money, or Christ and his church, was most precious to me? Perhaps God is asking you the same question today. As Christians, we need to intentionally consider our stewardship of the things of God this world, our own personal skills, our finances, the people He has entrusted to our care, and especially the sharing of what God had done for us in Jesus! As we consider our stewardship of God s gifts, it is useful to recognize that some of us may be approaching our decision about stewardship as spiritual children, rather than as spiritually mature adults. Regardless of our age in years, we need to recognize that we may have some growing and maturing to do in the life of faith. 4

5 We may still need to learn that we can trust God to provide for all the things we need. I m still amazed when I look at my own family budget, and wonder how we sometimes make the two ends meet. However, God has shown me that by giving to him first what is his in the first place I can expect him to take care of my needs. And the unexpected blessings I receive because of my obedience to God are always the best. They remind me that God loves me with an everlasting love, and that He will always meet the needs of his children. One measure of how far we ve come in our faith journey is how well we carry out our responsibilities of Christian stewardship. And of course, one place we can measure this is by giving prayerful consideration to how much we put in the offering plate each week, or month. Another way, however, to measure our spiritual maturity is to consider the spirit with which we volunteer our time and talents for the work of our church. And, a third way to measure our spiritual maturity is by looking at how willing we are to speak up for Christ in situations where people need to hear his saving word. I would like to remind you that there are three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. Just three colors - but we learn as children that by blending them in various combinations, we can make an entire palette of different colors. Since there are only three primary colors, each is extremely important. For example, without red, there can be neither orange nor purple, since red must be mixed with yellow or blue to make those colors. Stewardship has three important parts as well: time, talent, and treasure. Virtually every activity in the church requires some combination of all of them. The support of the Family Promise Program, for example, which helps top meet the needs of homeless persons in our community, requires someone with organizational talent to set the program up, donations of money and items to meet the family s needs, and many volunteers to host the family s while they are on the church s campus. 5

6 And think about this, an artist who is lacking one of the primary colors may be prevented from painting a masterpiece. In the same way, a church lacking enough volunteers or donations may be prevented from evangelizing, or meeting the needs of itself, and the community. Therefore, as Christians, we can t be stingy with the gifts God gives to us. Instead, we must strive to be good stewards, and give to God our time, talents, and treasures. Today, as part of your worship of God, you have the opportunity to pledge yourself to God as a faithful steward by filling out Bethel s Gifts and Talents survey. This survey lists all the important ministries of the church which have needs for faithful volunteers. REACH! In just a moment, our (REACH! Team members) are going to distribute Bethel s annual Gifts and Talent Survey. Please prayerfully mark those areas where you would like to serve, or continue to serve in the church for the upcoming year. When you have completed the survey, you are invited to dedicate your gifts and service to God by leaving your survey on the Communion Table. TRADITIONAL Following the giving of our tithes, gifts and offerings this morning, the ushers are going to distribute Bethel s annual Gifts and Talent Survey. Please prayerfully mark those areas where you would like to serve, or continue to serve in the church for the upcoming year. When you have completed the survey, you are invited to dedicate your gifts and service to God by leaving your survey on the Communion Table, or the Communion railing if you do not want to climb the steps. In August, our Committee on Lay Leadership will begin to look at volunteer needs for each of our church s ministry teams and committees for the term. We will use your survey to help get you connected into those ministries where you are passionate about serving. 6

7 I remind you that you are invited to the farewell reception for Cara and I following 11 am worship in the Pool Activities Building. Friends, May God bless us for our obedience to Him. And may His Spirit fill our hearts so that we will joyfully be good stewards of all the good gifts he has blessed us with. Amen. 7

8 1 Peter 4: God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Sermon Notes 1 Peter 4:10-11 Are you stingy? Our dreams become realities when we step out in faith and give to God what is rightfully his. If we are faithful in our offerings to God, we can certainly trust in Him to meet all of our needs. Genuine thankfulness for God s blessings, and good stewardship are inseparably related. God blesses us with an abundance of good gifts so we can be a blessing to others. Jesus said, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 8

9 Which treasure, money, or Christ and His church, is most precious to you? We can measure how far we ve come on our faith journey by: o How much we put in the offering plate each week or month. o The spirit with which we volunteer our time and talents to our church. o Speaking up for Christ in situations where people need to hear his saving words. Stewardship has three important parts: time, talent, and treasure. As Christians, we must strive to be good stewards, and give to God our time, talents, and treasures. May God bless you! 9